Deception
by Heart2Heroes
Summary: Fate's long developed plan finally gets in to action as the life of Wally West and Artemis Crock intersect. As the two soon to be heroes fight their own battles to be independent or free, the villains are busy planning one of the biggest problems all heroes will have to face head on.
1. Chapter 1, Too Fast

It was late June, and a hot day in Gotham City as students wandered the streets celebrating their Summer vacations. Wally West was in a car with his friend Alex and his mother Carolyn who drove them to Gotham's finest mall. It was known for being one of the busiest, because it had the best stores including Pear store, where all the hottest electronics were being sold at top dollar.

Finally away from Central City, and out of school, Wally was excited to be able to hang out with his friends for a week. Pulling into the parking lot of the huge building, the two boys got out and were told to call when they were ready to be picked up.

As they dispersed, Wally West never thought of his fate for the future, and the last thing he knew, was that the climax would start on that day, of all days.

"Dude, are you seeing what im seeing?" Alex stared in the direction of two girls walking towards he and his friend.

"Yes, a whole large pizza pie for 10 bucks!? I so have to move to Gotham" he exclaimed as he ran towards the food stand. Alex rolled his eyes,

"I knew we shouldn't have started in the food court."

Wally sat at a table, devouring slice after slice of his pizza.

"You realise I was talking about the two hot chicks in front of the pizza place." Alex stated as he watched the redhead finish his last slice.

"Plenty of babes around here, Alex. I apologize in advance, 'cause with me around, no girl is even gonna pay attention to you." he smirked, folding his arms behind his head, content glimmering in his expression. All too soon as his chair fell back from leaning too far.

Alex laughed and Wally went red as he noticed a girl with a hat walking past the food court glance at him, along with several other people.

"Smooth as always" he laughed as the embarrassed boy got up and fixed his chair.

Wally glared at Alex before shaking it off, "whatever, still smoother than you" he turned, throwing away the pizza box as his friend followed.

Alex laughed it off in good humor and soon they were off to the rest of the mall. As they were walking to their 3rd store, screams sounded and both automatically ducked.

"Woah what's happening" Alex asked as they realised everyone else had reacted from fear at the sounds. They heard more people panic a couple of stores away, and two male voices demanding everyone stay put 'or else'.

Being the nephew of a legitimate super hero, Wally West knew what was happening without a second thought.

"Get to an exit, i'm gonna go see what's happening."

Alex grabbed Wally's shoulder before he bolted, "are you nuts? Let's both get out of here while we still can!"

Wally thought quickly and responded, "You're right, let's go."

Alex turned and began running towards the side exit, he looked back to his friend only to discover he had vanished. Alex stopped and looked around in confusion,

"That was not cool!" he yelled and, fearful of being involved with the chaos, Alex continued running leaving his friend somewhere behind.

Wally had zipped into the nearest clothes store, Newbumble Comics, and snatched clothes for a disguise as quick as he could. With it, he left money on the counter of an unaware employee before running out to the bathrooms at lightning speed.

He threw on a red t-shirt with his uncle the Flash' symbol on it, covered his face with a yellow scarf and slapped on heat resistors to the bottom of his shoes that he carried in his pocket.

"If I had a costume, I wouldn't have to compromise" he said to himself bitterly.

Taking out his phone, he called Barry Allen, a Central City resident. He picked up,

"Barry, we got a huge problem, I didn't check but there's panic and men shouting in Gotham City Square Mall. Can you get here?"

"Not the best time, kid. I'm busy taking care of Mirror Master and Captain Boomerang but i'll get there as soon as possible. _**Don't**_ do anything while i'm gone" he cut out leaving Wally unsatisfied.

"How does he expect me to do nothing when I can do something?" He shook his head and smirked,

"No rules at this point"

He said before zipping out of the stalls and bathroom, heading towards the voices he heard. He hid near a vending machine and saw what the commotion was all about.

"MOM!" a little girl cried as her mother was frozen before her eyes.

"Sorry girly, we told her to stay put but she just wouldn't listen."

The little girl wiped her tears and marched to the men holding ray guns, punching their legs she yelled, "LET HER GO!" she cried as he stepped away from her.

The man held his gun to her head and just before Wally reacted, a older girl in a hat picked up the little girl in her arms and hurried her away. She attempted to calm her as she cried.

"It's okay. Your mom is gonna be okay" the teen girl said as she put the young one down.

"You have to be brave and go guard your mommy while I try to set her free, okay?" the little girl wiped away her tears and nodded,

"Save my mommy please." she said before running back to her motionless mother.

Wally was relieved that the girl was saved, yet astounded at who he would soon confront.

" _Captain Cold_ in Gotham City?" he murmured under his breath, and was surprised by the other man who walked beside the Central City freezer.

"Now that that's taken care of, why dont you go and get what we came for"

"With _pleasure_ " said a man in a large suit, emerging from behind Captain Cold.

"And _Mr. Freeze!_ Now that's a chilling combination."

Wally took a moment to think, he wanted to be successful in their take down because it was the first time he did anything solo. Using the element of surprise, Wally zipped out and swiped both freeze guns from the criminal's hands.

"Looks like you two caught cold feet on that one" he joked as the two dumbfounded men glared at the covered boy.

"What are you supposed to be? Some kind of Flashboy? Listen kid, you better scram before you get hurt." Captain Cold said with his eyes firmly in Wally's direction.

"That name has no effort in it at all," he said shaking his head and examining the freeze guns, "how do you use these things anyways?"

"They are beyond your inferior understanding, now step aside" the heavy suited Gotham freezer began marching toward Wally

"Oh I think I got it" he pointed the gun at , blasting it at him as he froze in place. His partner attempted to run but Wally, having metahuman speed, caught up and as he paused in front of him, smirked knowing he had him

"Think you need an ice bath to wash down that terrible name. I mean, Flashboy? Really?"

Captain Cold yelled, "Kid you better n-!" Wally had frozen him in his place before he could finish his sentence.

"Ice got your tongue?" he smiled beneath the yellow cloth that concealed his face.

"Now that was a bad joke." said a girl assumingly his age wearing a mask, with a big smile and strange stripes on the sides.

"Who are you?" he asked alarmingly as she pulled a sword out of its case.

"I'm the girl you just upset by ruining our plan, but you can call me the reaper, because i'm about to take you to your death" she stopped a couple feet in front of him. Again, Wally was caught off guard and was forced to come up with a solution quickly.

"You know that game where a guy puts a ball under a cup then moves them around, and the other person has to find out which cup the ball is under?"

She tilted her head slightly in confusion to his question.

"Yeah? Great, cus this-" he began running so fast that it appeared as though there were three of him in front of her,

"Is practically the same thing, guess which is me" The three masked vigilantes laughed as the black haired girl approached. She took down the one in the middle first, and her sword went right through it. She then sliced her sword through the one to her left and again, it faded. Without hesitation, she turned to her right and jammed her sword through the leg of the last one, but again it vanished.

Before she had time to process her mistake, Wally had run up from behind her and completely spun a long king sized blanket around her whole body, after swiping the sword from her hands. He than wrapped another blanket, after another blanket, after another blanket, as tight and secure as he could, causing her to fall to the floor like a caterpillar.

"You should have known better, the guy always hides the ball in his hand, not under the cups, duh."

She growled beneath her mask as he noticed something.

"I'll take that," Wally said in a cocky manner as he swiped an earpiece from the masked lady's ear. He listened in and to his surprise discovered that there were two other allies of hers in the mall.

"Cheshire, come in. Did you handle the boy?" a man spoke, Wally knew his voice and before he reacted, another voice came in over the piece.

"What are you guys hoping to get out of this at this point? The two ice makers are icicles now themselves, there's no way you can get what you came for _and_ escape. Might as well retreat."

Wally did not recognize the other voice, other than the fact that it was feminine. He interrupted the conversation,

"She's right, y'know. Except for the part about you being able to retreat."

Wally heard the anger in the man's voice as he spoke for the last time, " **radio silence, now**." and then the sounds went to static.

Wally now had the daunting task of hunting down these criminals before they could escape. He began by searching the whole mall at his top speed. He listened for their voices and ran around the whole mall several times. Finally, he heard one. A brief, "come on" was all it took to give their location away.

Wally raced towards the voice and was soon face to face with Sportsmaster himself, nearly out of the building by an emergency exit of the mall.

"Going somewhere?"

Sportsmaster charged at Wally and he quickly backed away as a response. For the third time, Wally needed to think fast, or lose his opponent.

Before anything could be done, Wally was tackled from behind, and painfully pinned down by a strong person who sat above him.

Sportsmaster laughed and made his way towards the exit, "Atta girl" he smiled as he left.

"Stay down" it was the voice Wally could not identify over the earpiece that spoke. He struggled and soon managed to wiggle himself free and escape from her grasp. She was quick to get on her feet, as was he. As they stood, Wally realised the girl he saw in the food court, and that saved the young girl, was the same girl who was now before him. Her gray cap covering long blonde hair in a hair tie

Wally regained focus and started running towards her. Her reflexes were incredibly fast, surprising even the fastest boy alive. As she dived out of his direction, she ran out of the corridor they stood in and into the the open area of the mall.

Among the civilians still rampaging out, Wally searched, and as he scanned, he soon locked eyes with the criminal's silver ones. He sped at her as she stood still, and before he could reach her, his feet glided among the mall's surface and he crashed into the glass of nearby shop.

The blonde haired girl hair poured water from a bottle in front of her.

"You aren't the only one who's quick on their feet." she stated as she ran through the small corridor and out the exit.

She was gone, and Wally was unconscious.


	2. Chapter 2, Mystery Girl

Head throbbing and ears pounding, Wally West slowly lifted his head from the ground and groaned as he pressed his forehead to his hand. His eyes took a while to focus as did his balance He attempted to stand despite the pain in his legs suggesting otherwise. Finally on his feet after wobbling a few good seconds, Wally's ears stopped ringing and he could begin to hear the conversation a few feet away from him.

There stood his Uncle in his red costume and a woman with a blanket wrapped around her. A little girl hugged the woman as she talked, and surrounding them were police officers examining the crime scene.

"she seemed as though she was separate from those other monsters. She came to me and thawed me after some other young lady thawed the criminals and left me behind! Sally, my daughter, she told me the girl promised to free me and that she said she was keeping her promise! Thank goodness to her, I was able to be set free without any fire, just a zap and I was out."

Wally had walked towards them by this time and spoke before the Flash could reply,

"What girl? I didn't have any help."

The little girl who Wally recognized had been saved from Captain Cold's freeze ray spoke in a sweet voice,

"The nice girl with pretty yellow hair, she saved my mommy like she said she would!"

The young speedster stood confused at her remark,

"The one in the hat? She attacked me! She isn't on our side, must be a mis-"

"Kid." The Flash interrupted, placing his hand on Wally's shoulder and pulling him to the side, "maybe we should have our own conversation in private."

He nodded to the woman a goodbye as he pulled Wally aside.

In that instant, Wally had remembered the orders his uncle had given him before hanging up the phone. He gulped and in his quick thoughts he came up with several excuses before Barry could finish a sentence.

"Kid, you-"

"I was under mind control and didn't know what I was doing, I swear I-"

"Kid, You didn't let me finish, you did good today."

The redhead's eyes widened in response as Barry continued,

"I watched the security footage, you handled those people pretty well. We were able to identify Jade Crock, or as you know her, Cheshire and her father Sportsmaster. Abou-"

"What about that blonde chick?"

Wally jumped from his shocked reaction to his curiosity that mixed with his irritation. The one girl who made him lose a winning battle. He was heated over it.

"I was getting to that. We're not quite sure who she is yet, but we're looking into it. By the way, she did rescue that woman over there according to the footage, could have just been out of goodwill. We'll be looking into it, trust me. But overall, you held up well kid." The Flash smiled.

The complement only gave Wally partial satisfaction. He was furious that no one knew of the mystery girl, and more so that she had gotten away.

The Flash seemed perplexed as he walked away from Wally

His nephew knew that look well, it was his thinking slash decision face. He was trying to come up with a decision for something. Speedsters had a tendency to overthink simple solutions in their family, given that they could apply so many flaws to a solution in one second. Before Wally had the chance to ask what the problem was, an officer had approached his uncle and began talking with him. The younger speedster decided to ask at later as he ran out of the Gotham mall, more concerned over how he would explain to his friend why he did not run away from the danger.

Wally had gotten dressed in civilian clothing again, and was nearing the hotel where he was staying with his friend.

As he climbed the steps, he could not shake the image of the blonde girl he lost to. Her eyes were silver darts, focused on him as they examined his moves. The speedster was bitter yet strangely intrigued. Wally shook his head, opening the large glass doors to enter the tall Gotham hotel,

"This is _so_ not over"


	3. Chapter 3, The Family Event

In a room sat two teen girls, one with a settled smile pressed on her lips as she sharpened her sword, the other was quiet and seemed eager to leave the room.

"How long does this usually take?" she asked bitterly to her sister.

"Sometimes half an hour, others, an hour, mostly 2 hours. Why don't you make use of this time with me sis, dad left your weapon at the door." she smirked as she stood up, retrieving another sword that shinned in the dim lighting.

The girl brought the long thin blade to the hands of the other who looked upon it with disgust, she pushed it away as her sister came close.

"Just because i'm being forced to help you, doesn't mean I want to help you. Or be a part of whatever this is, so tell dad to give up on this little family crime pack nightmare, i'm sticking with my bow."

Her sister scoffed as she gently lay the sword by the door once more,

"Why so stubborn, Artemis? You are an excellent fighter, with sword and bow. Why let your talent go to waste?"

The blonde girl stood up and darted her eyes at her sister,

"Because it's wrong. What you and dad do is wrong. It hurts people, and it ruined our family since day one Jade."

Artemis sat up and left the room though she was forbidden to do so, leaving her sister in silence. There was a hall that went past the large factory area where a group sat discussing heated topics. The door was closed, but she could still hear parts of the conversation

"We were able to retrieve the object after my daughter took out our little hero. I told you she would be of use to our plans."

"Indeed, and the distractions for both heroes went just as planned I am guessing?"

"Obviously, we're all here aren't we? And our central speedster as well as the dark pain of Gotham never showed up."

"Weren't counting on that quick brat though. We need a plan incase we get any surprises while retrieving the next device for our machine."

Artemis' eyes narrowed,

"Machine?"

Suddenly the doors swung open in front of her. There stood her father with a twisted smile,

"It ain't good to eavesdrop, baby girl."

Artemis could catch a glimpse past him before he closed the door.

"I got tired of waiting." she growled as she began walking away.

"Artemis, if you say anything to anyone about what you just heard, Jonathan Clay is a goner."

She nodded, her hands tightly bounded within a fist. There was the anger again, the anger she could not free for her friend's sake.

Jonathan Clay.


End file.
